Black Bear

Black bears are very successful animals with no natural enemies except other bears and man. Black bears are tolerant of other black bears, but occasionally skirmish over territory and food. Grizzlies and black bears do not get along and often avoid one another. The biggest threat to black bears is habitat loss. Bears are being forced to adapt to living close to man. In recent years, many bears have begun to associate people with food, often times getting into garbage cans and into homes in search of tasty scraps of food. The bears are not always a welcomed guest and lead to many problems. Younger bears that are new at being on their own are the most susceptible to becoming so-called “nuisance bears” because they soon discover the relative ease at obtaining food from human sources. Once bears begin relying on people for food, their natural fear of humans is diminished and often leads to confrontations with people and their property. Wildlife officials destroy many nuisance bears each year because it is difficult to curb their behavior. Relocation is another alternative, however many bears return to their original location. There have been accounts of relocated bears traveling over 150 miles back to their place of origin. The behavior of nuisance bears is not at all the bear’s fault. Humans are the ones that create nuisance bears. The best way to avoid bears into nuisance bears is to keep all food in cabins, campsites, houses, garbage cans, etc. inaccessible to bears, and under no circumstance should people feed bears scraps or morsels of food. Bears are more than capable of making it on their own without our handouts! Though descended from carnivores, bears feed primarily on berries, nuts, bark, and vegetation. They are capable of hunting however, and it is not uncommon for them to stalk and kill deer, antelope and occasionally a sick or wounded elk. Black bears are also skilled anglers. Each year during the salmon run, bears can be seen wading in rivers near Yellowstone and other parts of the Rockies catching large, wriggling salmon.